The hype continues to build for the fourth-quarter release of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the tactical espionage game for PS2 from Konami. A game trailer appeared at 2000's Electronic Entertainment Expo, and a playable game demo was released in early 2001.

Konami has kept interest in the game strong by debuting a new trailer at the recent 2001 E3. According to everyone who saw it, the new trailer is just as good, if not better, than the last one. New characters were introduced, more Metal Gear Ray footage was shown and, most importantly, several plot twists were revealed.

McFarlane Toys is still on target for a late 2001 release of its MGS2 action figure line, which will coincide with the game's debut. We showed four of the seven figures (including Metal Gear Ray, which is built from pieces contained in the six carded figures) at Toy Fair 2001. The remaining three characters are to remain secret. But check back into the News section of Spawn.com in mid-June for some breaking MGS 2 news. In the meantime, check out some new screen shots from the game.